Roberts: UNC govt will re-negotiate Dragon gas deal

UNC Senator Anil Roberts says TT’s Dragon Gas deal with Venezuela, which seems to be in some doubt after the US administration announced a change in policy in relation to Venezuelan energy, is a good deal.

Roberts told a UNC cottage meeting in the Moruga on March 10, that the Dragon would dance if properly negotiated with a duly elected Venezuelan president.

The US billion-dollar deal will see TT developing fields to produce gas which will be imported through a pipeline from Venezuela to platforms off the northwest coast.

Roberts was responding to the Prime Minister’s concern about the Opposition seeming bent on the downfall of the Dragon deal.

At a completion ceremony of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital central block on March 10, Rowley underscored the importance of that gas deal to TT’s energy economy, given a decline in local gas reserves.

“If you see us losing that OFAC licence, as you will see in the news if it happens, then you know your coo coo cook. If you see the Venezuelans not allowing us to use the Dragon field, then you know we are in difficulty.

“We take too much for granted in this country, that is why we could have people in this country calling for the failure of the Dragon deal. But I can tell you that they won’t have any problem because they stash away enough. So you who haven’t stashed away anything, it is your condition that they are laughing at.”

In Moruga, Roberts told supporters, “The Opposition Leader believes the Dragon Gas is a good deal when negotiated properly with public servants, with the proper duly elected president of Venezuela and a new prime minister of TT, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, not (Energy Minister Stuart) Young.”

Claiming an affiliation between Rowley, Young and Maduro, and what he called the "less-than-transparent" gas deal, Roberts said citizens had to save themselves from the damage done by the PNM administration in reference to the USA which had sanctions against Venezuela.

“We must show the difference in policy. Rowley is Maduro. He does not care for democracy, he does not care for the eight million people who ran from Venezuela under Maduro, he does not care about drug trafficking, narco-terrorism.

“Kamla Persad-Bissessar believes in democracy, in the Rio Treaty and in our trading partners, USA, Canada and Europe.”

Alluding to the hardship sanctions against countries doing business with Venezuela and Maduro could bring, Roberts asserted, “If you still want to get foreign exchange, use your credit card to shop on Amazon, watch Netflix, them Rowley and ‘Small Pin’ (Young) must go. They made their bed and let them lie on it alone.”

Pledging to reopen the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery and secure the country’s fuel and reduce fuel prices, Persad-Bissessar also spoke of the formation of a new body to represent local energy service companies and contractors.

“All locally owned MSMEs in the energy sector will be able to join and use this body to make representations directly to the Minister of Energy and prime minister without going through the existing energy chamber,” she said.